Date: Jul 15 20:12
User: Snowguy
Message:
They are coming in again. I got about $90 so far today, Stop us before we lend again!

Date: Jul 16 14:28
User: Snowguy
Message:
Before we realize it, we will have lent 300 loans totaling $10,000. A good portion of the lending from money recycled 1-4 times.

Over 60% of my own lending has been from repaid monies. I presume others would have a similar track record.

Date: Jul 21 07:32
User: malr
Message:
Hijacking this thread to say my daughter just found a new group to join...

Link: dumbledore's army

Date: Jul 23 19:06
User: dede
Message:
Ohhh i better go lend i a have a stack of credir too

Date: Jul 24 10:12
User: Snowguy
Message:
Only one more loan and we have 300. And only $350 away from ten grand! It's a certainty for August, if not July, which is still possible.

Date: Jul 24 10:15
User: Snowguy
Message:
Our little group, representing four continents and at least six countries.

Link: TeamFreecell

Date: Jul 24 14:21
User: watersmooth_silver
Message:
Wow, the Kiva website has been upgraded! So much faster to look at loans--used to take so long to get them to load they'd be fully funded before you got a chance to lend anything. I just made 3 more loans using money paid back from my other loans.

Date: Jul 27 12:25
User: bil
Message:
yes the site is better, I think Kiva indirectly answered my "do you donate to Kiva" question, now it's automatic which to cynical ol' me means a lot of folks weren't and now will have to do something extra to avoid helping the organization
Looks like we will go over $10,000 very soon, yeah TeamFreecell

Date: Jul 27 14:21
User: watersmooth_silver
Message:
Yeah, you're right--it *was* automatic this time. I've been doing it all along anyway, but maybe some people would rather not. I wonder if there's an "opt out" button for them? Next person who makes a loan, let us know, will ya?

Date: Jul 27 16:36
User: Snowguy
Message:
Funny, I didn't notice that last week. I'll check. (Kiva decided against funding a loan yesterday because of local loan agency issues, so I am getting my money back.) In fact, it's already in my account. So I'll be re-lending it and will look for this issue then.

I should have some information tomorrow. (Meeting in a half hour is making it impossible to do it now.)

Date: Jul 27 19:02
User: Snowguy
Message:
I don't get it. The Kiva donation screen is exactly as I recall it. It defaults to $3.75 as it always has, but using the drop-down menu, you can change it to another figure if you want, including $0 ("not this time") or 5, 10, 15 or 20% ($1.25 to $5.00)

You get to choose before you proceed. What's different?

BTW, $25 more and we hit $10,000!

Date: Jul 27 20:30
User: hotnurse
Message:
Ta da! Hope that helps.

Date: Jul 27 20:54
User: mabb
Message:
Way to go, hottie!

.hugs

Date: Jul 27 23:25
User: bil
Message:
Snow maybe it's my old timers but I dodn't remember being told how much to "donate" to kiva, what I remember was being asked and given a choice of different amounts, not that it matters, I'm sure they need money to operate and I certainly feel it is a worthwhile endeavor

Date: Jul 28 10:45
User: malr
Message:
i've seen it both ways recently - if it shows the new way, there's an 'edit' beside it, so you can still change it, if you don't just press go.

h

Date: Aug 15 07:26
User: Snowguy
Message:
It's that time of month! I just got well over $100 in reimbursements. Time to make a few loans. Check you portfolios, gang!

(By the way, we could use a few new recruits.) You can join the Team, look around a bit, and make a $25 loan when you feel like it. It's satisfying, and darn! That money keeps coming back to us! But then we re-lend it...

Kinda a good rut to be in, helping people who pay you back so you can help more people. Unless you need to withdraw repaid moneys, of course. I haven't lost a nickel in a bad loan, and I'm not aware of any other Team members who has lost money because of a bad loan. And that's 317 Team loans and counting!

Anyhoo, check your accounts, gang. There is probably repaid money sitting there.

Date: Aug 16 11:55
User: watersmooth_silver
Message:
Update to our TeamFreecell collection of countries: I went through the current list of "active" and "pilot" microfinance orgs and found that Bosnia/Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, and Moldova are no longer on the list. So I'm striking those from the list of countries needed. However, I found one *new* country that we can add to our list: Burundi. I checked just now and there are currently no loan requests from Burundi, but keep a look-out, folks! Whoever lends to Burundi will be the winner of our team's unofficial "lend to every country" award! You don't win much--just a *huge* thanks from your teammates!

I just lent our the $84 and change I received in repayments this month--two loans to Nicaraguan guys and one to a woman in the Dominican Republic. The guys are not fully funded yet, so join in on those if you've got repayments to lend!

Link: TeamFreecell

Date: Aug 16 12:01
User: watersmooth_silver
Message:
Oh, and I forgot to say in my previous message that I just checked my portfolio to look at the repayment status of my loans and 17 of my 43 loans are now 100% paid back! Woohoo! You can see my lender page at the url below.

Link: watersmooth_silver's lender page

Date: Aug 16 12:05
User: Snowguy
Message:
I lent to Burundi a while ago, I believe. I will have to look it up. (Reminds me of the line in "Dave" "They know hats in Burundi.")

Date: Aug 16 12:12
User: Snowguy
Message:
Here it is! (I thought I had a great-hats country in there...)

It turns out I have 34 countries so far. (Wow)

Link: Burundi, where they know hats

Date: Aug 16 15:35
User: mabb
Message:
Yay! Snowguy is our WINNER!

What's next - two loans to every country?

Thanks to smoothie for keeping track of the active list!

Date: Aug 16 20:48
User: ix
Message:
sometimes its hard to make the decision of who to loan to (yeah i know it should be whom, deal with it), this one was a slam dunk, just look at that dudes hand in the air, something about it just communicates, makes me think of the plaque on the pioneer spacecraft.

Link: http://www.kiva.org/lend/219965

Date: Aug 16 21:06
User: watersmooth_silver
Message:
Yay, Snowguy! Obviously, my record-keeping is a little faulty since I didn't realize we already *had* Burundi, but thanks for making it official. Mabb, I don't know what the next challenge should be...anyone want to float an idea?

Date: Aug 17 16:37
User: Snowguy
Message:
You got that right, ix! Ya gotta love the guy.

(Do you all realize we are over $10,600?) You guys are flying them out so fast that none of my loans in the past couple days are even on the board!

By the way, my wife is picking loans now. Why should I have all the fun? This month I had enough refunded to make 5 more loans! So, CJ is picking 'em. Cool.

Date: Aug 17 20:07
User: Snowguy
Message:
I have $.03 left in my Kiva account! (I will try to spend it all at once!)